Elli
by Annie Nonamous
Summary: An orphan teen named Kilah sets up ghost detecting equipment in occupied houses for a living and meets and unlikely friend while working.


"Shhh Taya!" I whispered. She squirmed and mewed in the shoulder bag she liked to be carried in. The dusty old house was empty and eerie. Our mission was to get in, set the cameras, and get out. Our worst fear? Getting caught.

I started doing this about 3 years ago, the first year I was left on my own after my mom died of cancer. Dad was long gone. About 13 years gone in fact. I found my kitten Taya when I was 14. When I started to get paid for my services.

I help out the crazy group of people. They suspect that there are what people may call apparitions, spectors, ghosts. My job is to set up cameras and microphones in places that are occupied. The places where the people don't want their houses searched for the stuff my customers think are there.

It's a pretty exciting job, that pays enough to get by. It isn't a tough job either. I'm small, quiet, and fast. An unbeatable combination when it comes to being a camera setter for the N.A.I.T. That's the National Apparation Investigation Team.

I always let these thoughts run freely through my mind whenever I was on the job. But this time, something stopped me. A cool chill ran over my body and the hair on my neck stood on end. Taya hissed. A sound that proved enormous against the sudden silence. The chorus of crickets and frogs from outside had come to an abrupt halt. It was as if a giant glass dome had been placed over the house.

A scraping sound filled the air above me, and Taya's hiss ceased. Something wasn't right. I weaved my way among the clutter in the basement storage room. I had to see what was up there. If there was an intruder, we were in the same boat. But they wouldn't care. I would have to get out. But if that weren't it, I wouldn't know what to do. There wasn't any way that I believed the wack-os I worked for though. It wasn't a ghost.

I crept up the stairs. There were three floors in this house. Basement, main floor, and the attic. I searched for the source of the sound on the main floor but the noise continued, and it wasn't coming from there. I peered at the closet/crawl space that contained a staircase leading to the attic. I could've sworn I saw the doorknob jiggle. "You're just paranoid!" I told myself. But still…

I slid over to the closet. I touched the doorknob and then instantly recoiled. It was ice cold. I tried again for the door. But a split second before I reached it, the door swung open and I felt a pull on my body. Definitely not normal. I took one step, then another.

Taya whimpered, a pathetic noise that interrupted my train of thought. I only then realized what I was doing. I was following a terrifying pull up a flight of stairs into a creepy attic toward an unknown sound that made my skin crawl. Yeah, not crazy at all. I again felt the pull. It was stronger this time, urgent. I let it lead me. Ignoring Taya's continued protests.

I found that I had closed my eyes and instinctively snapped them open again. I hated that feeling of being unable to see. It scared me. It made me feel… trapped.

When I opened my eyes, the amount of light hadn't changed. That made it worse. Then suddenly, a ball of glowing light appeared and lit up the room. I could see everything perfectly even though the light was only about the size of a volleyball.

I didn't find anything wrong with the room aside from the glowing ball. Then I saw a girl, a crying girl. She was about twelve and had hip-length, pale blonde hair. She was in one corner of the room sitting with her arms around her legs and her face pressed to her knees. She looked up and hair fell over half of her face.

She looked at me like she wondered why _I_ was a creepy attic. "Crap, she must live here!" I thought. I stepped toward her and she cocked her head to the side. She lowered her legs to the ground and spread them into a v shape. Her hands pressed against the floor. Her pale arms perfectly straight. Again I noticed her eyes. They were penetrating and baby blue. Our eyes locked and then she was gone.

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That night I thought about her, that strange girl. Was she really there? That was it! I ran down to the public library which was open all hours. The place was pretty much empty so I got to a computer relatively quick. I searched the address of the house I was at earlier that day. It was over 100 years old.


End file.
